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The Stupidest Idea Ever

I have heard some stupid ideas in my lifetime. I have actually perpetrated some stupid ideas in my lifetime. But never, in all my 66 years, have I heard an idea as stupid as the one being put forth by the current administration, along with a number of others, in response to the calls for better regulations on gun ownership and access.

Donald Trump has decided that the way to end school shootings is to make every teacher and coach carry a loaded gun. Close your eyes for just a minute, dear friends, and imagine all the possibilities, not a one of them good.

Since there is little likelihood that any teacher would consent to carrying a loaded pistola on their person at all times while in the classroom or on break, that loaded gun will sometimes be in the teacher’s desk drawer, open to any student who, either out of anger or just a lark, decides to get the gun and start shooting. And then, there are the teachers themselves. Did you read about Karen Smith, the teacher in Boulder, Colorado, who grabbed a boy by his collar and physically dragged him out of the classroom and down the hallway? His crime? He remained seated during the pledge of allegiance. What if Ms. Smith had a gun in her pocket or waistband … was she angry enough that she might have used the gun instead of her hands as a weapon?

The president of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, called arming teachers “one of the worst ideas I have heard in a series of really, really, really bad ideas.”

Republican Representative from Alabama, Will Ainsworth, proposed a bill to arm teachers, saying, “Our students do not need to be sitting ducks. Our teachers do not need to be defending themselves with a No. 2 pencil.” No, Mr. Ainsworth, they need to be assured that our government is properly seeing to their safety by regulating peoples’ access to guns!

A poll released this week by ABC News/Washington post says 42 percent of Americans believe teachers with guns could have prevented the Florida shooting. If you ever wondered what percentage of the U.S. population is utterly mindless, now you know … 42%. Strange, isn’t it, that that number is very close to the number of the aggregate polls of Trump’s approval rating. Something to think about.

The NRA, of course, is salivating over this idea or arming teachers, for it would mean many more guns sold, more revenue for the gun manufacturers, and more money and perks for the NRA.

Trump met with survivors and others affected by last week’s shooting in Parkland Florida, and it was there that he proposed arming teachers. The students were not impressed and remained angry, rightfully so, that Trump and the republicans in Congress absolutely refuse to consider the calls for stronger gun regulations …

“I turned 18 the day after. Woke up to the news that my best friend was gone. I don’t understand why I can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war, an AR. I was reading today that a person 20 years old walked into a store and bought an AR-15 in five minutes with an expired ID. How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? How are we not stopping this after Columbine, after Sandy Hook, sitting with a mother that lost her son? It’s still happening.” – 18-year-old Sam Zeif, a Parkland student.

“We’re here because my daughter has no voice – she was murdered last week, shot nine times. How many schools, how many children have to get shot? It stops here, with this administration and me. It should have been one school shooting, and we should have fixed it, and I’m pissed because my daughter, I’m not going to see again.” – Andrew Pollack, father of 18-year-old Meadow, who was killed last week.

“It’s not personally something that I support. Rather than arming them with a firearm, I would rather arm them with the knowledge of how to prevent these acts from happening in the first place.” – Nicole Hockley, whose six-year-old son Dylan died at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Our elected leadership reminds me of a husband who is intently watching football on a Sunday afternoon when his wife is trying to tell him something of importance, such as that she is pregnant, or that the house is on fire, or their youngest child just ran away from home. He is not listening, could care less what she is saying. It is only once she finally pulls the plug on the television and smacks him upside the head that he may listen. It is time for us to pull the plug on our elected leader’s distractions, and smack them upside the head with our votes in November. Arming teachers is not the solution to the problem, but will only exacerbate the problem. Taking guns out of the hands of fools and idiots is the answer to the problem.

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66 thoughts on “The Stupidest Idea Ever”

As a teacher, this is such a heavy and personal topic. This post actually made me chuckle because your tone and approach was so funny. Thank you for your message. I will be sharing this with teacher friends.

Welcome! And thank you for reading and commenting. This is a sad, serious, and highly charged topic, but I felt the need to get the point across. Thank you for sharing with your friends. And my hat is off to you, for I think yours is truly the noblest profession.

I ambled into a WP site where the blogger was saying armed teachers was the correct answer, and one of the contributors agreed, then supplied an assessment (not an illiterate rant) why this was a good idea. It seemed to be based on police training.
Now my problem is a teacher is trained to be a teacher and a police officer is trained to be a police officer. Does this mean, therefore, that part of the budget for the education and training of teachers will no included training to a very high standard of armed response, which would ensure very, very fast reaction time and the ability to aim accurately and take down the ‘shooter’ without any friendly fire incidents?
Would they not have to train under ‘live’ conditions with classes of volunteers who will run about screaming, or causing line of sight to be interrupted as they all dive under the desks?
Also there is the question of shooters knowing they are going into an armed environment approaching in a different way, ir charging the building spraying the area with random shots, thus then causing casualties. Unless the teachers are on guard duty to rota to back up the armed security guards already on point.
I didn’t go down that road on the blog, I suggested as a Brit has anyone tried reconciliation with the opposition and meet some sort of compromise over gun control, then warned them the USA needs to come together……
No one replied, yet.
They never do.

A few things here, based on friends who are teachers, and also interviews I have heard/read. First, some teachers are incensed because for years now, they have had to purchase their own classroom supplies with their own money (it’s not like they are highly paid to begin with), and they are saying, “what, they cannot afford to provide us supplies to teach, to do our job, but they can afford to buy us guns?” Valid point. Then there are the ones who are saying, “not everyone has the temperament to carry and use a gun, no matter how much training is provided”. Another valid point. And then there are those saying, “I went into teaching to teach children, not to be a security guard. I cannot protect my students with a pistol against a man carrying an assault weapon. I would do better to help them find a safe place out of harm’s way.” Still another valid point. And I’m sure there are others. These buffoons who think it is a good idea might do well to put themselves in a situation whereby they have a six-shooter against a man with an AR-15 that can mow down masses in under a minute. gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

There seems to be a mindset which somehow believes that ‘I am being responsible by carrying a gun, and I know exactly what to do with it, how and when’.
From what I’ve read about battlefields and life/death situations you really have to be trained constantly to a very high standard to handle that sort of pressure.
So many times I have read accounts of battlefields where a veteran has said, along the lines of..
‘Like all novices in combat for the first time…’ and account the screw-ups which take place.
An’t gonna work guys, to quote from Michael Herr’s Dispatches…
‘This an’t the movies fellah’

A few friends are veterans of the Vietnam War, and they say the same, that they never, ever took killing lightly, never got over the knowledge that they had taken a life. Yet some today seem to have no such conscience. On a personal level, I do not believe I could pull a trigger, though of course we never know for sure until faced with the situation. But, I also know that I have a temper, and as such, I have no business owning any lethal weapon. I’ll stick with my rolling pin, thanks. 😉

I do think a lot of folk talk a lot about things they have no idea of, which in turn affects those who are unstable.
Being brutally honest if I lived in the USA I’d own a gun not as a right but as a deterrent, but there’s my short fuse, so not a person who should have one in any shape or form!

Yeah, I understand that. Like you, I have that short fuse and know better than to tempt fate. And, I figure my life isn’t worth more than another human’s, and I don’t want to have taking another’s life on my conscience. Anyway, my luck I would see that ol’ hag in the mirror, think she surely must be a crazed intruder and shoot her! 😀

Dear Jill,
I have this fantasy of putting the president, NRA president and others like them in a similar situation (test only) where they have a gun which they will have to use in a High School with 3000+ plus screaming children running for cover over several buildings. Let’s see how fast they can locate the shooter and how willing they are to face off against someone wielding in AR15 which could very well end up as a suicide mission without a successful outcome.
These guys who talk big, all too frequently have never experienced a combat situation and they are clueless as to the inevitable repercussions from their recommendations.

A key reason I became a teacher was my desire to find peace and unity. A gun would be the last item I would wish to own. Trump has no right infringing on this humanism of the teaching profession with this ignorant suggestion.

You are right, of course, but name one single area that he has NOT infringed on in the past year! He has turned this nation into a tinderbox just waiting for the right spark. Sigh. Hang in there, my friend.

Not a day has gone by since November 8, 2016, that I haven’t asked myself that question and tried to find the answer. Many have told me what they thought the answer was, but I’m not convinced … I am still stymied. It may well be that the history books will still be asking that question 100 years from now. Sigh.

The moment I read about this I knew you would be writing about it! (No, actually not quite correct: first I went “WHAT on earth…!!!!” and then I though “Jill is going to write about this”). If you ever do a “stupid idea of the year”-contest this would be a very hot candidate indeed! – I am quite a peaceful person actually, but THIS inspires some violent ideas of my own how to end this whole mess! (Including hitting some people over the head with their own guns…) – Remember that shooting in the church not so long ago? Maybe then priests also should carry weapons??? Everyone has gone completely mad …

You always know when there is a topic I cannot resist! Yes, I am peace-loving also, but there are some people that can simply drive me to want to go a-smiting! Hey! Good analogy on the church shooting … I hadn’t thought of that! Yes, I sometimes believe the world has gone mad … but I think most people are doing the best they can, just trying to survive day-to-day … it’s the really, really obnoxious ones that get all the attention and make us wonder what the world is coming to.

Absolutely correct! My own opinion is that guns belong only in the hands of military and law enforcement, but few would agree with me. Even I, who hates guns, does not own one, and does not allow one in my home … I know that under the wrong conditions, if I had one, I would be a danger. We all have tempers, emotions, and can inflict harm before fully thinking it through.

Jill, the teachers I have seen interviewed have all said the best thing they can do is get kids in a locked down mode to keep them safe. What too many do not fully realize is it is very difficult to shoot when someone is shooting at you. There was an armed movie goer at Aurora Theater in Denver, but he said he did not whom to shoot as it was smokey and dark.

I totally agree with the comment that the NRA is all about gun sales not safety. They deserve every criticism they receive when it comes to safety. Most gun owners do not belong to the NRA. Keith

Same here … I saw only one teacher comment on a news story that she already carries a pistol in her purse and supports teachers carrying. The rest have had a variety of reasons for not supporting the idea, including that they are teachers, not police; that they don’t feel qualified to make judgment calls in such situations; that they are forced to buy their own supplies, but they can be provided with guns makes no sense; and that more bullets flying around while teachers are busy shooting instead of protecting their charges makes no sense. And I saw somebody, I think it was Matthew Dowd, made the very valid point that a handgun really is no use against an assault rifle.

I agree with that comment too. The NRA is about $$$$$ and nothing more.

Jill, i agree with Dowd. If a teacher tries to take down a man (it almost always a man) with a AR 15, it won’t end well. It would keep the teacher from doing what is needed to lock down the room and protect the kids. People who want to arm teachers presume all else is equal, when most people would not be up to the task to shoot back with accuracy. Keith

So true. And, as I heard one teacher comment, some people simply are not cut out for ‘policing’ and could not pull the trigger, no matter how much training they had. I don’t think I could, quite honestly!

Yes, it all makes sense, and the analogy to the car safety features and regulations is an apt one. I admired … still do … him greatly, and the only reason he was so disliked by so many was for the colour of his skin. A shame, and I wonder if we will ever outgrow bigotry. Sigh.

As a retired high school teacher, I was aghast at the idea of arming teachers. I’ve often wondered that with all the public shootings outside of schools over the years, where are all these people who have guns when the shooters opened fire? Can you imagine students caught in the crossfire? A pistol is effective against an automatic weapon? I think this is the second dumbest idea I ever heard. The dumbest idea was the suggestion that people vote for Donald Trump. Excellent post, Jill! Hugs!

Thanks, John! I so agree! I can just picture horrible outcomes, and not a single good one! I did have to laugh, though at your selection of the dumbest idea ever! 🤣 🤣 And I agree with you, as you knew I would! 😀

Has anybody ever tried to do a brain cell count on Trump and the others that support such an insane move. Maybe they don’t have anything that counts negatives.All the effort saying you want to keep guns out of schools and Trump’s answer, put more in. I’m incredulous.
Cwtch

Nope, two wrongs do not make a right, as my mother used to say. When I was married, I refused to allow any guns in my home (I still have that rule) and my husband nearly divorced me when I refused to allow his drunken brother in one night, as he had a gun in his waistband. Guns are bad enough, but mixed with alcohol??? No Way!

Completely agreed. Once the gundealer boyfriend did not come home from the gunshop, and it was a big stress to know that I could find anything there, since they sat around and drank while using and selling guns. Not my scene, although that particular time worked out.